Stay on target

Push-to-talk program Zello rose to prominence during Hurricane Harvey rescue efforts, and continues to serve as Hurricane Irma bears down on Florida.

A modernized two-way radio, the application relies on a Wi-Fi or cellular connection to link crowds across the world. When Harvey hit Houston, volunteers leaned on Zello to coordinate search and rescue missions.

Many folks in the path of Irma appear to be following that lead.

“We have seen a large number of people signing up for Zello in preparation for Hurricane Irma,” founder and CTO Alexey Gavrilov wrote in a recent blog post.

Since last Monday, more than six million new users have registered for the free service, according to BuzzFeed—pushing Zello to the top of the iTunes App Store charts.

With great power comes great responsibility, and the Austin-based company has been scrambling to maintain capacity, help with customer support, and provide useful information.

Gavrilov on Wednesday posted tips Zello communications during and after a disaster, suggesting people use text messaging or PTT apps and avoid making phone calls “unless you have an emergency.”

“Use Zello channels to coordinate group efforts of getting supplies, gas, preparing [your] house for the wind and rain,” the blog said. “Find and connect to the local search and rescue channels on Zello, or, if there [are] none, make your own.”

Despite its meteoric growth in just about a week, the cross-platform social network boasts an App Store rating of only 2.5 stars.

“While Zello has been helpful in Harvey relief efforts, it is not a hurricane rescue tool,” Gavrilov said, adding that the service “is only as useful as the people who use it, and as reliable as the data network available.”